Lil Kickers

So, I grew up doing sports. I did soccer when I was little, didn't like it so much. Then I did T-ball/Softball...it was just ok. Then I started doing basketball and volleyball and loved both of them. These were the sports I stuck with throughout my junior high and high school years. Our family had a 2 sport rule otherwise I think I would have tried to do track as well as I like to run. So, I've never been one to like cheerleading/cheerleaders (no offense to those reading this entry that was/are cheerleaders...it's just not for me!) So, I REALLY don't want my girls to be one and I want them to develop a love of sports as I did. Lately Kayley has been talking about how fast she is at school. She is in a class with all boys and one girl. She has really started to talk about loving their recess time lately. I guess they play Mario Kart and race each other. Kayley tells me that the boys can't ever catch her because she's so much faster than her. She has also started getting her play balls out and showed me how she can kick them with her knee or kick them outside, etc. So, I thought maybe we should try to get her involved in soccer and see if she's interested in the sport (because as most of you know, Kayley has never seemed to be the sport type.) The other day Sports City had an open house for their Lil Kickers program. We decided to try and take Kayley and Cora and see how it went. They had it divided into three age groups 18 months-2 1/2, 3-6 years, and 7-8 year olds. I was glad they would be in the same group however the groups were only divided by a 6 in tall net so there wasn't much separation. Cora just ate it up! She loved being able to run around and kick the ball, etc. Kayley had a hard time with it. She came over to me and started complaining about hitting her hand or something on the ball. I tried to be sympathetic but still wanted her to toughen up a little and still play. That's hard for Kayley as she is definitely a drama queen and very sensitive. Well as I was consoling her, the 7-8 year olds were down at their end trying to score a point and the ball came and hit Kayley in the back. That just set it off completely! Trying to cover my laughs (I know I'm a horrible parent, but come on, what are the odds!?!?) I tried to be silly and took a ball and tried to get her excited about kicking her ball and what happened, I hit her in the head with the ball! Again tried to console her and cover my histerics at this point, it seemed impossible at this point. Luckily their time was over and we could head over to the bounce houses. Kayley continued to fuss about the littlest things so I'm just hoping this incidence was because maybe she was too tired or hungry or something like that. At any rate, how do you toughen up a kid!?! If she doesn't want to do sports, I can handle that, it may just not be her nature, but I don't want her to be a woose? Oh well, I will try to praise her for her character that she does have! She really does have a lot of great qualities and they may just not be the same talents as me and that's the beauty of having children! They share a little bit of you and your spouse, but there is lots more great characteristics about them that you get to learn about! Overall it was a fun experience and maybe she will want to do something else later!